How to bake the best baked potato in the oven: Here are the keys to crispy skins and perfectly fluffy baked potatoes!

Growing up, I saw no shortage of baked potatoes. Baked potatoes are cheap, easy, kid-friendly, and versatile. A mother’s dream food!

My mom grew up in a “meat and potatoes” home where, as you may have guessed, dinner was required to have each component on the table. It was the 50s and 60s – vegetarianism was virtually unheard of.

I imagine that potatoes were mostly boiled during that time with maybe some surprise breakfast potatoes on the weekend with the leftovers from the week. Blah.

Years later, my grandma never lost sight of potatoes with her meals. In fact, the bar food trend of the 90s overjoyed her when she found out that loaded potato skins were a thing.

I guess I’m a product of my genetics (shocking, right?) because I could seriously eat a baked potato a few times a week.

I don’t need the meat to go with them but a butter-tender medium-rare grilled steak is not something I’ll turn down a couple times a year.

How to Bake the Best Baked Potato

So enter these baked potatoes! I was actually on the hunt recently for how to bake the best baked potato and lo! Cook’s Country came to my aid, yet again.

The Key to the Perfect Baked Potato in the Oven

Turns out, the key to the perfect baked potato is to be patient!

In an effort to speed up the baking time, for years I was pre-baking the potatoes in the microwave for a few minutes and then popping them in the oven. This resulted in unevenly baked potatoes, microwave-tasting skins, and an overall sense of dissatisfaction.

More blah!

Cook’s Country went straight for the oven here with this baked potato recipe. After you wash the potatoes of dirt, they get tossed in a salt brine.

How Long to Bake Potatoes in the Oven

You’ll bake the potatoes in a super hot oven (450° F) for nearly an hour, brush them with some oil, and bake ’em again. Yes, baked potatoes definitely need a long time to bake since they are so dense. Keep in mind that smaller baked potatoes will probably need a little less time to bake.

Baking them for this long is needed to ensure you get those perfectly fluffy and evenly cooked potato centers.

The potatoes emerge as piping hot pockets of potato ready to be loaded up with butter, sour cream, bacon, and any of your other favorite baked potato toppings. Drooool!

The skins are pure crispy perfection and this was the first time I have ever seen Kyle eat the potato skin.

We loaded these potatoes up for lunch two weekends in a row for a fantastic and filling meal, and I even popped a few extra potatoes in the oven to guarantee lunch for me during the week with some BBQ compound butter.

Win-Win-Win!

Recipes to Use the Best Baked Potato

Name: The Best Oven Baked Potato
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 4 (7 to 9oz) Russet or Idaho potatoes, washed and poked a few times on each side with a fork; ½ cup warm tap water; 2 tbsp table salt; 1 tbsp olive oil

If you need some inspiration for how to up your baked potato game, look no further!

Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe with Bacon and Caramelized Onions

The perfect side dish recipe for any protein, these twice baked potatoes are loaded with bacon, caramelized onions, cheese, and fresh thyme. They're surprisingly easy to make and will make everyone at the table happy at dinner time!

Chicken Taco Loaded Baked Potatoes

Stuffed full of shredded taco chicken, cheese, sour cream, and crushed Fritos, these loaded baked potatoes are an awesome weekend lunch or light dinner! Set out bowls of taco toppings and let everyone make their own creations!

Chorizo Roasted Broccoli Cheddar Loaded Baked Potatoes

Change your lunch game forever with these super stuffed chorizo and broccoli potatoes that are smothered in a cheddar cheese sauce.

Roasted Vegetable Stuffed Potatoes

These roasted vegetable stuffed potatoes are the PERFECT way to use up leftover veggies and those random blocks of cheese from your cheese drawer.

Gouda Twice Baked Potatoes

These gouda twice baked potatoes are an easy and family-friendly side dish for steak, burgers, chicken, or pork. And the recipe below is easy to scale up or down, depending on how many people you need to feed!

The Best Oven Baked Potato

Yield: 4 large potatoes

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Baked in a super hot oven, brushed with oil and baked again, these potatoes emerge as piping hot pockets of buttery, fluffy, perfectly tender and evenly cooked potatoes.

Ingredients

4 (7 to 9oz) Russet or Idaho potatoes, washed and poked a few times on each side with a fork
½ cup warm tap water
2 tbsp table salt
1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450° F. In a large bowl, stir the water and salt together until the salt is dissolved. Roll the potatoes in the water until well-coated; pat dry and place them on a wire rack set atop a large baking sheet.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the inside temperature reads 205° F (smaller potatoes will need around 45-50 minutes). Remove the potatoes from the oven, brush the tops and sides with the oil, and return them to the oven for another 10 minutes to allow the skins to become crispy.
Remove the potatoes from the oven and slice them open right away with an "X" in the center to avoid them steaming and thus, softening the skins. Squeeze the potatoes open and load 'em up with plenty of salt, pepper, butter, and/or your favorite toppings.

Notes

adapted from Cook's Country

Recommended Products

As a member of the Amazon Associate affiliate program, I earn a small percentage from your qualifying Amazon purchases when you click the Amazon links on this page. I'm not informed of who purchases what, just of what products are purchased.